Cal Poly president reacts to second campus rape

May 13, 2011

Cal Poly president Dr. Jeffrey Armstrong issued a statement Friday condemning a pair of sexual assaults that occurred against female students in less than a week.

Campus police say a second student reported being raped in her campus dormitory room at Poly Canyon Village Thursday night. The victim told police she was intoxicated and unconscious at the time of the attack.

Police have identified a suspect, but no arrest has been made.

The Poly Canyon Village assault follows the reported rape of another female student at the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity on California Blvd. last weekend. Cal Poly student Joseph Trupiano, 23, was taken into custody after turning himself in Thursday night.

In a campus-wide email, President Armstrong condemned the assaults, saying, “These incidents have forever altered the lives of two young women who deserved respect and protection that they did not receive from the people around them.”

Although rape is a terrible act and never justified, perhaps staying sober and not passing out is a good deterrent. In a case like this the victim needs to take some responsibility for the perpetrators actions. Perhaps the university should go back to the “old school” and separate the dorms to men only, women only. Co-ed, cohabitation just makes it too easy for students to get into trouble.